Posts Tagged ‘corvette stingray’

The Dodge Challenger and Charger Hellcat models take center stage in the new Predators ad campaign.

At 707 horsepower, the Dodge Challenger and Charger Hellcat models are the most powerful muscle cars to ever roll off a Detroit assembly line, and the fastest. Just ask any dealer who has watched the two vehicles squeal out of showrooms faster than the factory can build them.

Even though Dodge is heavily promoting the Hellcat models in a series of new 30- and 90-second ads, the Hellcats are sold out for the rest of the 2015 model-year. But parent Fiat Chrysler isn’t the only one struggling to meet demand. Ford Motor Co. saw a roughly 40% jump in sales of its long-popular Mustang last month, and while sales are off a bit for the Camaro, Chevrolet expects a big surge of demand once it launches the all-new 2016 version in the months ahead.

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Only a few years ago, skeptics were predicting the demise of the muscle car, with the classic V-8 likely to be relegated to the automotive rust heap. Hybrids and battery-cars were expected to take their place. But as recent sales figures have demonstrated, Americans aren’t about to abandon their long-standing passion for performance. These days, manufacturers are being forced to pile on the incentives to get buyers to consider those alternative-power vehicles.

The new Chevrolet Corvette was the single most "Ideal Vehicle" according to owners.

For the second consecutive year, Porsche has been named the “Ideal Vehicle” brand by American consumers, though the individual vehicle that tops the list is the all-new Chevrolet Corvette.

General Motors, in fact, had more top-ranked models in the 2014 Ideal Vehicle Awards, or IVA, than any other manufacturer but Ford Motor Co. this year. And despite the Detroit maker’s ongoing recall issues, its GMC truck marque was named the “Most Ideal Popular Brand” in a survey conducted by California consulting firm AutoPacific, Inc.

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Significantly, a quarter of the top-ranked models in the 2014 IVA are all-new or, like the ‘Vette, have been completely redesigned for 2014.

“Winning an IVA in their first year of release shows that these newly redesigned vehicles have hit the mark with their owners, but it also shows that the designers did their research to know how to best meet the needs and expectations of their core group of buyers,” said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific.

GM pulled off a sweep of the North American Car & Truck of the Year awards with the Corvette Stingray and Chevy Silverado taking the honors.

A year from the day after unveiling its all-new two-seat sports car – and nearly five years after plunging into bankruptcy – General Motors landed a clean sweep of the influential North American Car and Truck of the Year, company officials declaring that the two awards not only justified the bailout of the giant automaker but made it clear to the world that GM is back in the game.

Going into the opening ceremony at this year’s North American International Auto Show it was far from certain who would take the car and truck honors in what was seen by many members of the jury as perhaps the most competitive group of finalists in the 21 years of balloting for North American Car and Truck of the Year.

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But GM scored big with the new Corvette which was coincidentally announced at the Detroit Auto Show on January 13, 2013, while it also landed a win for its new Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup. (more…)

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray took to honors, along with the Mazda3,at the Motor Press Guild's Innovation Vehicle of the Year Awards.

The new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the 2013 Mazda3 walked away with top honors from the Los Angeles-based Motor Press Guild as the two winners of the organization’s Innovation Vehicle of the Year Award.

The Mazda3 walked off with award in the under $29,000 class while the Corvette Stingray took the accolade for the $29,000 and over category. It was the second year in a row a General Motors product won an award from MPG. The Cadillac ATS was named MPG’s first car of the year in 2012.

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The awards were decided by MPG’s journalist and analyst membership, which determined the winners by evaluating each car on innovation, technology, engineering, safety, environmental impact, price, affordability and value. (more…)

Quick, quicker, quickest? Chevy will start rolling out even faster versions of the Stingray, apparently, for 2016 with the renamed Z07.

Like most automakers, General Motors doesn’t discuss future products – well, most of the time – and that includes the inevitable variants of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette. But Chevy officials don’t deny there are some spin-offs coming and considering the way the new Stingray has raised the hurdles, they’re going to have to deliver some serious numbers when the next-generation Z06 and ZR1 models roll into showrooms.

In fact, we may see some all new model designations to underscore what’s in store. A new report suggests Chevy will opt to call its next model the Corvette Z07. Considering the “base” version of the 2014 Stingray delivers roughly the same power and performance of the outgoing Z06, perhaps that’s no surprise.

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The C7, as folks have taken to calling the new ‘Vette, is a high-tech wonder, adopting such niceties as direct injection, variable valve-timing and the like. According to Car and Driver’s new report, the new Z07, which may be marketed as a 2016 model, will get even more technically sophisticated, starting with a twin-turbo V-8 it claims will have a displacement of “significantly less than 6.2 liters.”

It’s already on tape to be the most powerful “base” Corvette ever produced, and when the seventh-generation ‘Vette hits market over the summer, it will also come in as the fastest, for the first time ever breaking the 4-second mark.

Well, put an asterisk in the record book. It’s the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray with the optional Z51 Performance Package that will screech from a standing start to 60 in just 3.8 seconds. It will also hit 1.03 g in cornering and brake from 60 to 0 in just 107 feet, Chevy has announced.

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“For the new Stingray, we set out to elevate every aspect of the Corvette’s performance,” said Tadge Juechter, Corvette chief engineer. “Considered alone, the acceleration, braking and cornering performance of the Corvette Stingray is truly impressive. More significant is how well they work together, resulting in a lap time at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) that places the new Stingray in the upper echelon of all sports cars.”

It was a Corvette weekend at the annual Barrett-Jackson, one of the nation’s biggest classic car auctions, as bidders ran up big winning bids for both new and old versions of the 2-seater often referred to as “America’s sports car.”

Less than a week after the all-new, 2014 Chevrolet Corvette – the “C7” to insiders and aficionados – made its splashy debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, NASCAR team owner and Atlanta Chevy dealer Rick Hendrick won the bidding for the Corvette Stingray number one for a bid of $1.1 million.

(Back from the brink – the inside story of the 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray. Click Here.)

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The money will go to the Detroit-based College for Creative Studies which runs one of the world’s most highly respected automotive design programs – and where several of the stylists who worked on the Corvette program were trained.

TheDetroitBureau.com’s resident historian, Mike Davis was yet to get his license when the first Corvette rolled into GM’s private auto show, known as Motorama, 60 years ago. But he’s been watching and reporting on every ‘Vette since then.

Davis recently released a series of books on the history of Chevrolet and with the new 2014 “C7” Chevrolet Corvette winning kudos as the star of this year’s Detroit Auto Show, we asked him for some remembrances about the Corvette, as well. Here’s his tale.

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What in heck does C7 mean? It’s the seventh reincarnation of America’s only regular production sports and racing car. As shown in my Chevy V.1, as I refer to it, the first Corvette (C1) began as a “concept car,” a one of-a-kind auto show queen, at General Motors’ Motorama at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in January 1953.

It was once a name to be reckoned with, arguably the ultimate American muscle car. But after a more than three-decade absence, the Corvette Stingray is making an unexpected re-appearance at the Chevrolet stand at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show.

The concept vehicle, which took two years to bring to fruition, was one of the most tightly-kept secrets at General Motors, according to Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of design, after the striking silver sports car made its stealth appearance on the floor of McCormick Place.

“There were a lot of people on the design staff who didn’t know about his vehicle,” said Welburn.